Proper illumination of a dental patient's mouth is a critically important aspect of dentistry. To this end, very high intensity lamps, such as quartz halogen type, are normally provided with dental lights. The lamps have sufficient intensity and color temperature to fully illuminate the mouth and accurately render tissue colors.
The light includes a housing. A generally convex shaped reflector is mounted in the housing to the rear of the lamp to reflect and focus the lamp's light on the face of the patient. Forward of the lamp, a transparent reflector shield is mounted to the light housing.
The dental patient's eyes must be protected from the intense light that illuminates the patient's mouth. To this end, shadow masks have been attached to dental lights for the purpose of casting a shadow over the patient's eyes. The shadow masks are generally cup-shaped members that are attached to the reflector shield, centered on the lamp, and sized to cast a sufficiently large shadow to protect the dental patient's eyes from exposure to the intense light.
The production of a reflector shield to incorporate a shadow mask complicates and adds expense to the manufacture of the dental light.
This invention is directed to a shadow mask for a dental light, which mask is a discrete component that is manufactured separately from the reflector shield and is easily and removably attached to the lamp socket to provide the necessary eye-protecting shadow.
The use of a discrete shadow mask greatly simplifies the manufacture of the reflector shield, which may be formed of a continuous piece of transparent material. Inasmuch as the shadow mask is not formed as an outwardly protruding part of the reflector shield, the outer surface of the reflector shield is a smooth, curved surface that is easy to clean.
The shadow mask includes legs that provide spring action to facilitate easy attachment (and removal) of the shadow mask to a lamp socket. The legs clip to the socket in a manner such that the mask is substantially immovable relative to the socket, hence the shadow mask is substantially immovable relative to the lamp.